Atlanta Events

It was the perfect weekend for one of the city’s best food events of the year - Taste of Atlanta! Located right in the middle of Midtown (5th/Spring), this annual food fest had a fantastic array of more than 70 restaurants and businesses ready, willing and able to serve up their finest eats and drinks.

Met up with some lovely ladies, all of whom are foodies in their own right and they were armed with cameras to take in all the action. If you aren’t yet following them online, check out Erin’s LIKEatl, Tami’s RunningWithTweezers, and Chris’ MeleCotte. Both Tami and Chris were judges at some TOA events, including the Big Green Egg Grill Off and a BBQ competition! Erin’s blog has an amazing slideshow of food from the event that will have you drooling!

Eating out is considered a luxury to a lot of people, so TOA is a great way to try the cuisine at local restaurants you haven’t yet been to and also get to know the chefs behind all the great food. Some great people to meet included Chef Keira from Pacci! They had some fantastic food at their stand, including an amazing braised short rib over a creamy polenta. Their bolognase and mushroom dishes also got rave reviews. There is a current great Scoutmob deal available for Pacci through 11/15 for those who downloaded it/have the iPhone app- so get up to $50 off your bill and try this place out!!

Gorgeous day, we paced ourselves with both savory and sweet offerings, and if you were VIP - you got access to fantastic wine and beer tastings. For the beer, Reid (@ATLBeerMaster) coordinated a great group of top craft beers and if you were lucky, you may have seen Mike (owner of The Brick Store Pub) hanging around with Bob Townsend (Beer blogger for the ACJ). Here’s a pic of Billy (@RestaurantsATL), Mike, Bob and Reid, as well a shot of the long spread of great beers from HopCity.

Some great eats of the day included Noon Midtown’s chicken and biscuit bite, Morelli’s famous Salted Carmel ice cream, Craft’s braised pork with tomato molasses in a lettuce cup, the deconstructed gyro rolls from HobNob’s Chef Ring, and the organic pumpkin ice cream from 5 Seasons West.

Also, there were food competitions, seminars and cooking demonstrations. I got to listen in as Exec Sous Chef Jason Paolini of Holeman & Finch showed a lucky group how to make their famous hamburger!

Overall an excellent event, so if you didn’t get a chance to attend this year, you should definitely go next year! If you were one of the lucky ones - I know you had a fantastic time, since I definitely did!

Growing up, I wasn’t really exposed to the arts like theatre, museums, ballet, or opera. As such, most of my experience has been as an adult and I’ll admit when someone starts discussing ‘ballet’ I immediately think of Swan Lake. Formal, expensive and sometimes unapproachable. I often wonder how many people have eschewed going to the opera or ballet because of those same perceptions.

This isn’t your grandmother’s ballet!

I had the immense honor of going to the last dress rehearsal of Atlanta Ballet’s Moulin Rouge this week. The show opens tonight and only runs for two weeks (last show 10/31)! After what I saw last night, I wish it would be running for months, just so everyone has the chance to see it.

Our scene is set in the infamous Montmartre, an area of Paris that was the epicenter of the Bohemian movement. Artists flocked to the City of Light to be inspired, fall in love and experience life to it’s fullest. A young painter (Matthew) and a laundress turned Cancan girl (Nathalie) have a whirlwind romance set against the magical atmosphere of the Moulin Rouge.

Caption: Cancan girl in Atlanta Ballet’s production of “Moulin Rouge The Ballet.” Photo by Charlie McCullers.

I loved everything about this show. The first thing that struck me was the amazing set design by Andrew Beck. Minimal, with a bit of an industrial/steampunk feel, but also powerful and a perfect backdrop to a cast of colorful characters. Of course fantastic dancing/choreography from Jorden Morris, who artfully blended classical ballet style with the exciting French Cancan and the tempting tango!

Caption: Christine Winkler as Nathalie and Jonah Hooper as Zidler in Atlanta Ballet’s production of “Moulin Rouge The Ballet.” Photo by Charlie McCullers.

This show is not Swan Lake, it’s a riot of excitement and color. The company hired an acting coach and you’d have thought this was a musical and not a ballet with the amazing expressions and body language in the show. It was easy to follow the story and I was laughing and gasping with every wink and sinister stare. I loved that the lead dancers for Matthew and Nathalie, John Welker and Christine Winkler, are married in real life! The passion was definitely there. I also really enjoyed the performances of Jonah Hooper as the nefarious Zidler, the owner of the Moulin Rouge (and best costume of the night!) and the glue who quietly holds the entire show together, the famous Toulouse-Lautrec played flawlessly by Brian Wallenberg.

Caption: Nathalie and the Cancan girls in Atlanta Ballet’s production of “Moulin Rouge The Ballet.” Photo by Charlie McCullers.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the fantastic costume design by Anne Armitt and Shannon Lovelace. The attention to detail was amazing and I could see that the dancers loved performing in their costumes, the way the women’s skirts swirled, the fantastic waistcoats on the men, they made the stage come alive!

Obviously, if you’ve gotten this far in my review, I cannot recommend this show enough. If I was a millionaire, I’d buy tickets for all of my friends to see this performance because it’s honestly one of the best I’ve ever seen. This is the 81st season of the Atlanta Ballet and they aren’t slowing down one bit!! Tickets start at low as $28, which is a steal for this caliber of show and after opening night - there are only 8 shows left!!

Thanks to the Atlanta Ballet for the opportunity of a lifetime!

There are a ton of great events all around Atlanta celebrating Fall and one of my favorite holidays of the year - Halloween!

Here is a list of some of the coolest events for both the urban crowd and families alike!

Halloween Tours - Oakland Cemetery, This Friday-Sunday. $10+. Guided tours in one of the country’s oldest cemeteries!

Stone Mountain Pumpkin Fest - Stone Mountain. Weekends in Oct. $21+. Discounted tix avail at Kroger. Laser show, pumpkin patch, scavenger hunt, more!

The Ghastly Dreadfuls - The Center for Puppetry Arts. $25. Now thru 10/31. This annual adult show is spooktacular!

Netherworld Haunted House, Now thru 11/6. $22+. The ultimate scare in Atlanta!

Gravedigger’s Ball - Buckhead Saloon, Sat 3pm-2am. $8+.

Ghost Tours! Roswell (Every night in October! $10-$15) & Norcross (10/22-23, 10/26-31 $8-$12)

Boo at the Zoo - Zoo Atlanta. Sat/Sun (last two weekends in Oct). $32+. Members free!

Scarecrows in the Garden - Atlanta Botanical Garden. Sat/Sun (last two weekends in Oct). Free with admission. Crafts, games and more.

Goblins in the Garden - Atlanta Botanical Garden. Sat 11am-5pm. $12+. Pony rides, train, scarecrows and more.

Spirits and Bones Fest - Fernbank Museum. Weds 10/27. $20+. Adult Halloween party with food catered by Sauced Atlanta!

Dead Sexy Halloween - East Andrews. Fri 10/29 9pm. $20. Drink specials, costume contest, hosted by Star 94 FM!

GA A-Scary-Um - Georgia Aquarium. 10/29-31. Kids under 12 in costume free with paid adult. Candy stations and more in the world’s largest aquarium!

Scary Party Pub Crawl - Deadwood Saloon. Fri 10/29 8pm. $8+. 9 bars featuring drink/food specials

Boos and Brews - Sweetwater Brewery. Sat 10/30 9pm. $30.

SpiralWeen - Park Tavern. Sat 10/30 9pm. $15+. Live music from The Geeks, costume contest, drink specials, more.

Atlanta Halloween Ball - The Fabulous Fox Theatre. Sat 10/30 8pm. $125+. Benefits Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.

Dali-Ween - High Museum of Art. Sun 10/31 1-4pm. Kids in costumes are free! Spooky stories, mask making, more.

Halloween Brunch Bash - The Shed. Sun 10/31 10am-3pm. Kids $6.50/Adults $13. Great food!

Murder at Dracula’s Castle - Dad’s Garage. Sun 10/31 8pm. $18+. One-night only fully-improved murder mystery show!

RA Sushi BOO BASH! Sun 10/31 8pm-Midnight. FREE! Costume contest, drink/app specials, music, and tarot card reader!

I recently had the good fortune to go with lots of other fun food and Atlanta tweeps for a tour of a place near and dear to my heart - the Vinings Jubilee. I live in Smyrna, right across the highway from the Jubilee and it was my first adopted neighborhood when I first moved to Atlanta more than six years ago.

With all the time I’ve spent recently exploring great neighborhoods like Inman Park, Decatur, Midtown, and Downtown, I’d neglected a really fantastic space just a few miles up the road. This was my opportunity to ‘rediscover’ one of my favorite places in Atlanta.

We started our tour at SOHO, a great restaurant that has recently undergone some major renovations and has been a part of the Jubilee for years. It was great to be greeted by owner Susan Smith and enjoy their pomegranate and cranberry bellini, as well as some their savory appetizers including General Joey’s Tempura Calamari and Salmom Thai. Upon checking in to FourSquare, I also discovered on your first visit you get a free Sweet Water Farms Free Range Angus Beef slider!

The food was incredible and I can’t wait to go back for a full dinner experience.

Next was a very different scene,The Burger Club! Perfect for watching the big game, a night out for the family or just grabbing a drink and some great eats after work, I was really glad we stopped here. And that’s not just because they had cute waiters with Krispy Kreme sliders and ‘Adult Milkshakes’ for us! Well, not entirely the reason. We got to try the pumpkin pie, peanut butter and key like pie ‘Adult Milkshakes’ that were laced with tasty alcohols like vanilla vodka.

This was my first official ‘donut burger’ and it was pretty amazing. They also had fried pickle chips that my fellow tweeps really enjoyed.

Next stop was a more upscale dining experience at Garrison’s! We got to meet managing partner Les Forehand, who was very enthusiastic about the restaurant and the community in the Jubilee. They are part of Metrotainment Cafes, who also own the Hudson Grille, Joe’s on Juniper and Sullivans, Sugar Shack and Einstein’s.

We tried some of their appetizers, including a fantastic Marinated Artichoke Bruschetta, Manchego Cheese Fritters and Buttermilk Calamari. My favorite had to be the fritters, who can say no to cheese balls fried with a caramel, sherry and thyme sauce?

Just when I thought it couldn’t get any better, we stopped at The Grape. I’ve taken my parents here and even had a few dates at The Grape back in the day, but I hadn’t seen the place since it’s recent makeover. They removed the retail part of the shop and make it into a dining room. One of my hesitations in the past on planning a whole evening outing around The Grape was the limited tapas menu. They have changed that as well, with new entree options! We got to try their Pulled Pork & Fire-Roasted Corn Flatbread and the Pan Seared New Bedford Scallops. Both were delicious!

The Grape also features monthly wine tastings, this month’s is Layer Cake. We tried the Shiraz and Primitivo - both excellent reds.

Then we were off to La Paz, a casual mexican place with a great atmosphere, killer margaritas and delish spinach queso! I’ve taken my parents and their friends out to this place and being from Texas, they take their mexican food very seriously! They have always enjoyed this place and the reason why is below…

The final stop on our tour was Noche! Back when I first moved here, this was Le Madeline and then our Neighborhood Bakery and now Noche, which is part of the Here to Serve restaurant group which also includes Strip, Shout, Twist, Goldfish and Prime. Again, great atmosphere and food. Perfect for a date night or post-work drinks/dinner.

I want to thank Tara and Michelle from 360Media and all the great owners/managers of these establishments for reintroducing me to a great new group of restaurants that are just as close as Downtown or Inman Park! I hope you will all consider checking out the Vinings Jubilee for your next dining adventure!

I had a blast at the recent Beer Tweet Up I co-hosted with Reid Ramsey, the Atlanta Beer Master at 5 Seasons Westside!

We offered up the custom brewed Dark Saison that Reid crafted with Brewmaster Crawford Moran back in July and there were nothing but rave reviews from our guests! Read about the process on Reid’s blog. Reid is the one in the bright orange Flyers hockey jersey - hard to miss him at the event!

Christy from 5 Seasons offered up 2 for 1 app, vodka and wine specials, as well as Reid’s Dark Saison for $3 (normally $7). We had a lot of people saying they were with us, just to get this great beer at a discount!

Great group of people, including Erin from the new LIKEatl and her husband Arvo, Mandy Sewell of AtlantaDish/LadyDuplex, sisters Katie and Nicole, who are the awesome team behind the brilliant food blog We Whisk Away, John of AtlantaBeer, Reid’s lovely girlfriend Jen of ATLBeerChick, good friends John and Brent, the always amazing Jon Macklin, and Mike of FolksyBrew!

Talk about timing, turns out the GALsirens and Ale Atlanta were having a Battle of the Brews the same night! Got to hang with Jennifer (aka HopTrollop) and their crew as they brought out all their beer faves.

Reid got some love from Jennifer, his Dark Saison was a huge hit and a great time was had by all! Thanks to everyone who attended!!!

I’m a fan of our local sports teams, but especially look forward to attending Thrashers games this time of year. Being from Texas, I didn’t grow up with hockey as a high school or even college sport, but I see sports outings as more than just cheering for a specific team, it’s more about spending quality time with friends. So I’d definitely classify myself as a casual enthusiast, versus a hard-core hockey fan.

Thrashers games are fun to attend and an affordable outing with tickets starting as low as $10.25. Throughout the season they have discount nights (2 for 1 tix) and sponsored events like tonight’s Chic-Fil-A Family Pack ($85 for 4 tix and 4 combos). Sure there is fighting, but unfortunately for the hard-core hockey fans not as much as they would like.They also have fun/free giveaways on certain nights, which is where I picked up a pretty cool Thrashers scarf!

There is this mystique about being ‘on the glass’ and those tickets are pretty steep in price, but I think the higher up seats have a much better view. I recommend sitting in the upper deck 309/310/311/312 as far forward as you can. Great view of the entire rink and you can almost feel the heat from the Thrasher heads when they blow fire! Awesome!

Downtown has more and more new restaurants opening, so if you are looking for dinner/lunch before or after a game, there is always the CNN Center Food Court, but also check out Slice, Ted’s Montana Grill, Thrive, my new fave Googie Burger, DerBiergarten,STATS or any of the other great Luckie Marietta district restaurants.

I’ll admit this post is entirely biased, but isn’t that what a blog is all about? Blogs are about the thoughts and opinions (and passions) of the author and one of my favorite places in Atlanta has to be Dad’s Garage.

I admire the talent and guts of the actors to put it all out there and I think the moment I fell in love with the company was a couple years back watching ‘Song of the Living Dead’ - a zombie musical.

With Two Gentlemen of Lebowski, Dad’s does what they do best - take something from pop culture, turn it on its ear and make it that much funnier. Directed by Kevin Gillese, who joined Dad’s Garage in January as the Artistic Director for the company, Lebowski is a labor of love and laughter.

The short version of the backstory as told by Kevin is that the writer created and pitched the play, which is taking the cult movie ‘The Big Lebowski’ and putting a Shakespeare twist on it, but hadn’t bothered to get the approval from the Coen Brothers.

After months of calls/emails with Hollywood lawyers and a huge amount of begging from Kevin, the Coen Brothers finally broke down and gave Dad’s the green light to produce the only approved stage production based on the movie. Sure there are rogue shows here and there, but this is the only one that has the official Coen stamp of approval - which is very impressive.

I saw the show last weekend and though it’s been awhile since I’ve seen the movie, I was really amazed at how quickly it all came back - even when presented in Shakespeare-style. Talk about the ultimate stage mashup! Basic translation: Dude=Knave.

Tickets start at $12 and show run Thurs/Fri and Sat nights thru October 30th.

The show was sold out Sat night and I expect it will be packing in fans of both the movie and the company alike all month long.

So if you need an idea for your next date night or evening with friends - one of my favorite nights out has to be getting dinner at one of the great restaurants in Inman Park like Parish, Fritti, Sotto Sotto, Pure Taqueria or Wisteria and then walking over to see a Dad’s Garage show. If you have time, stop in for some custom chocolates as well from Cacao Atlanta and what a sweet time it will be!

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